This work presents reasons for digitizing audiovisual archives as well as waysof doing so. It defines terms such as audiovisual work, digital audiovisual archive and layers in audiovisual archives. The process of digitizing an audiovisual work is analyzed. Five case studies are included. The sixth is the main case of documenting theatre plays on video. Technical solutions for digitizing the archive are presented, costs evaluated, storage and filing suggested. The archive maysomedaybecomea vital part of a multimedia theatre playdatabase. Such a database is analysed and new options and techniques enabled byaudio and video documenting of theatre plays are researched.